Re: [PATCH 14/14] xfs: document future directions of online fsck

Allison Henderson
2023-03-03T23:51:24Z

On Wed, 2023-03-01 at 16:39 -0800, Darrick J. Wong wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 01, 2023 at 05:37:19AM +0000, Allison Henderson wrote:
> > On Fri, 2022-12-30 at 14:10 -0800, Darrick J. Wong wrote:
> > > From: Darrick J. Wong <djwong@kernel.org>
> > >
> > > Add the seventh and final chapter of the online fsck
> > > documentation,
> > > where we talk about future functionality that can tie in with the
> > > functionality provided by the online fsck patchset.
> > >
> > > Signed-off-by: Darrick J. Wong <djwong@kernel.org>
> > > ---
> > >  .../filesystems/xfs-online-fsck-design.rst         |  155
> > > ++++++++++++++++++++
> > >  1 file changed, 155 insertions(+)
> > >
> > >
> > > diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/xfs-online-fsck-design.rst
> > > b/Documentation/filesystems/xfs-online-fsck-design.rst
> > > index 05b9411fac7f..41291edb02b9 100644
> > > --- a/Documentation/filesystems/xfs-online-fsck-design.rst
> > > +++ b/Documentation/filesystems/xfs-online-fsck-design.rst
> > > @@ -4067,6 +4067,8 @@ The extra flexibility enables several new
> > > use
> > > cases:
> > >    (``FIEXCHANGE_RANGE``) to exchange the file contents, thereby
> > > committing all
> > >    of the updates to the original file, or none of them.
> > >
> > > +.. _swapext_if_unchanged:
> > > +
> > >  - **Transactional file updates**: The same mechanism as above,
> > > but
> > > the caller
> > >    only wants the commit to occur if the original file's contents
> > > have not
> > >    changed.
> > > @@ -4818,3 +4820,156 @@ and report what has been lost.
> > >  For media errors in blocks owned by files, the lack of parent
> > > pointers means
> > >  that the entire filesystem must be walked to report the file
> > > paths
> > > and offsets
> > >  corresponding to the media error.
> > > +
> > > +7. Conclusion and Future Work
> > > +=============================
> > > +
> > > +It is hoped that the reader of this document has followed the
> > > designs laid out
> > > +in this document and now has some familiarity with how XFS
> > > performs
> > > online
> > > +rebuilding of its metadata indices, and how filesystem users can
> > > interact with
> > > +that functionality.
> > > +Although the scope of this work is daunting, it is hoped that
> > > this
> > > guide will
> > > +make it easier for code readers to understand what has been
> > > built,
> > > for whom it
> > > +has been built, and why.
> > > +Please feel free to contact the XFS mailing list with questions.
> > > +
> > > +FIEXCHANGE_RANGE
> > > +----------------
> > > +
> > > +As discussed earlier, a second frontend to the atomic extent
> > > swap
> > > mechanism is
> > > +a new ioctl call that userspace programs can use to commit
> > > updates
> > > to files
> > > +atomically.
> > > +This frontend has been out for review for several years now,
> > > though
> > > the
> > > +necessary refinements to online repair and lack of customer
> > > demand
> > > mean that
> > > +the proposal has not been pushed very hard.
>
> Note: The "Extent Swapping with Regular User Files" section has moved
> here.
>
> > > +Vectorized Scrub
> > > +----------------
> > > +
> > > +As it turns out, the :ref:`refactoring <scrubrepair>` of repair
> > > items mentioned
> > > +earlier was a catalyst for enabling a vectorized scrub system
> > > call.
> > > +Since 2018, the cost of making a kernel call has increased
> > > considerably on some
> > > +systems to mitigate the effects of speculative execution
> > > attacks.
> > > +This incentivizes program authors to make as few system calls as
> > > possible to
> > > +reduce the number of times an execution path crosses a security
> > > boundary.
> > > +
> > > +With vectorized scrub, userspace pushes to the kernel the
> > > identity
> > > of a
> > > +filesystem object, a list of scrub types to run against that
> > > object,
> > > and a
> > > +simple representation of the data dependencies between the
> > > selected
> > > scrub
> > > +types.
> > > +The kernel executes as much of the caller's plan as it can until
> > > it
> > > hits a
> > > +dependency that cannot be satisfied due to a corruption, and
> > > tells
> > > userspace
> > > +how much was accomplished.
> > > +It is hoped that ``io_uring`` will pick up enough of this
> > > functionality that
> > > +online fsck can use that instead of adding a separate vectored
> > > scrub
> > > system
> > > +call to XFS.
> > > +
> > > +The relevant patchsets are the
> > > +`kernel vectorized scrub
> > > +<
> > > https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/djwong/xfs-linux.git/
> > > log/?h=vectorized-scrub>`_
> > > +and
> > > +`userspace vectorized scrub
> > > +<
> > > https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/djwong/xfsprogs-dev.g
> > > it/log/?h=vectorized-scrub>`_
> > > +series.
> > > +
> > > +Quality of Service Targets for Scrub
> > > +------------------------------------
> > > +
> > > +One serious shortcoming of the online fsck code is that the
> > > amount
> > > of time that
> > > +it can spend in the kernel holding resource locks is basically
> > > unbounded.
> > > +Userspace is allowed to send a fatal signal to the process which
> > > will cause
> > > +``xfs_scrub`` to exit when it reaches a good stopping point, but
> > > there's no way
> > > +for userspace to provide a time budget to the kernel.
> > > +Given that the scrub codebase has helpers to detect fatal
> > > signals,
> > > it shouldn't
> > > +be too much work to allow userspace to specify a timeout for a
> > > scrub/repair
> > > +operation and abort the operation if it exceeds budget.
> > > +However, most repair functions have the property that once they
> > > begin to touch
> > > +ondisk metadata, the operation cannot be cancelled cleanly,
> > > after
> > > which a QoS
> > > +timeout is no longer useful.
> > > +
> > > +Defragmenting Free Space
> > > +------------------------
> > > +
> > > +Over the years, many XFS users have requested the creation of a
> > > program to
> > > +clear a portion of the physical storage underlying a filesystem
> > > so
> > > that it
> > > +becomes a contiguous chunk of free space.
> > > +Call this free space defragmenter ``clearspace`` for short.
> > > +
> > > +The first piece the ``clearspace`` program needs is the ability
> > > to
> > > read the
> > > +reverse mapping index from userspace.
> > > +This already exists in the form of the ``FS_IOC_GETFSMAP``
> > > ioctl.
> > > +The second piece it needs is a new fallocate mode
> > > +(``FALLOC_FL_MAP_FREE_SPACE``) that allocates the free space in
> > > a
> > > region and
> > > +maps it to a file.
> > > +Call this file the "space collector" file.
> > > +The third piece is the ability to force an online repair.
> > > +
> > > +To clear all the metadata out of a portion of physical storage,
> > > clearspace
> > > +uses the new fallocate map-freespace call to map any free space
> > > in
> > > that region
> > > +to the space collector file.
> > > +Next, clearspace finds all metadata blocks in that region by way
> > > of
> > > +``GETFSMAP`` and issues forced repair requests on the data
> > > structure.
> > > +This often results in the metadata being rebuilt somewhere that
> > > is
> > > not being
> > > +cleared.
> > > +After each relocation, clearspace calls the "map free space"
> > > function again to
> > > +collect any newly freed space in the region being cleared.
> > > +
> > > +To clear all the file data out of a portion of the physical
> > > storage,
> > > clearspace
> > > +uses the FSMAP information to find relevant file data blocks.
> > > +Having identified a good target, it uses the ``FICLONERANGE``
> > > call
> > > on that part
> > > +of the file to try to share the physical space with a dummy
> > > file.
> > > +Cloning the extent means that the original owners cannot
> > > overwrite
> > > the
> > > +contents; any changes will be written somewhere else via copy-
> > > on-
> > > write.
> > > +Clearspace makes its own copy of the frozen extent in an area
> > > that
> > > is not being
> > > +cleared, and uses ``FIEDEUPRANGE`` (or the :ref:`atomic extent
> > > swap
> > > +<swapext_if_unchanged>` feature) to change the target file's
> > > data
> > > extent
> > > +mapping away from the area being cleared.
> > > +When all other mappings have been moved, clearspace reflinks the
> > > space into the
> > > +space collector file so that it becomes unavailable.
> > > +
> > > +There are further optimizations that could apply to the above
> > > algorithm.
> > > +To clear a piece of physical storage that has a high sharing
> > > factor,
> > > it is
> > > +strongly desirable to retain this sharing factor.
> > > +In fact, these extents should be moved first to maximize sharing
> > > factor after
> > > +the operation completes.
> > > +To make this work smoothly, clearspace needs a new ioctl
> > > +(``FS_IOC_GETREFCOUNTS``) to report reference count information
> > > to
> > > userspace.
> > > +With the refcount information exposed, clearspace can quickly
> > > find
> > > the longest,
> > > +most shared data extents in the filesystem, and target them
> > > first.
> > > +
> >
> >
> > > +**Question**: How might the filesystem move inode chunks?
> > > +
> > > +*Answer*:
> > "In order to move inode chunks.."
>
> Done.
>
> > > Dave Chinner has a prototype that creates a new file with the old
> > > +contents and then locklessly runs around the filesystem updating
> > > directory
> > > +entries.
> > > +The operation cannot complete if the filesystem goes down.
> > > +That problem isn't totally insurmountable: create an inode
> > > remapping
> > > table
> > > +hidden behind a jump label, and a log item that tracks the
> > > kernel
> > > walking the
> > > +filesystem to update directory entries.
> > > +The trouble is, the kernel can't do anything about open files,
> > > since
> > > it cannot
> > > +revoke them.
> > > +
> >
> >
> > > +**Question**: Can static keys be used to add a revoke bailout
> > > return
> > > to
> > > +*every* code path coming in from userspace?
> > > +
> > > +*Answer*: In principle, yes.
> > > +This
> >
> > "It is also possible to use static keys to add a revoke bailout
> > return
> > to each code path coming in from userspace.  This..."
>
> I think this change would make the answer redundant with the
> question.
Sorry, I meant for the quotations to replace everything between the
line breaks. So from Q through the answer, just to break out of the
Q&A format.

I sort of feel like if a document leaves the reader with questions that
they didn't have before they started reading, then ideally we should
simply just incorporate the answer in the document. Just makes the
read easier imho.

>
> "Can static keys be used to minimize the runtime cost of supporting
> ``revoke()`` on XFS files?"
>
> "Yes.  Until the first revocation, the bailout code need not be in
> the
> call path at all."

That's an implied Q&A format, but I suppose it's not a big deal either
way though.

>
> > > would eliminate the overhead of the check until a revocation
> > > happens.
> > > +It's not clear what we do to a revoked file after all the
> > > callers
> > > are finished
> > > +with it, however.
> > > +
> > > +The relevant patchsets are the
> > > +`kernel freespace defrag
> > > +<
> > > https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/djwong/xfs-linux.git/
> > > log/?h=defrag-freespace>`_
> > > +and
> > > +`userspace freespace defrag
> > > +<
> > > https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/djwong/xfsprogs-dev.g
> > > it/log/?h=defrag-freespace>`_
> > > +series.
> >
> > I guess since they're just future ideas just light documentation is
> > fine.  Other than cleaning out the Q & A's, I think it looks pretty
> > good.
>
> Ok.  Thank you x100000000 for being the first person to publicly
> comment
> on the entire document!

Sure, glad to help! :-)

Allison

>
> --D
>
> > Allison
> >
> > > +
> > > +Shrinking Filesystems
> > > +---------------------
> > > +
> > > +Removing the end of the filesystem ought to be a simple matter
> > > of
> > > evacuating
> > > +the data and metadata at the end of the filesystem, and handing
> > > the
> > > freed space
> > > +to the shrink code.
> > > +That requires an evacuation of the space at end of the
> > > filesystem,
> > > which is a
> > > +use of free space defragmentation!
> > >
> >